Democrat Leadership Moves To Protect Crony-Capitalism

…..Rep. Steve Israel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told Politico that the GOP resistance to Ex-Im “enforces the intuition that the American people have that Republicans are willing to inflict damage on the economy to protect their politics.”

As Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer explained: “The Tea Party is moving the Republican Party so far to the right on important issues like the Export-Import Bank, that the business community is now farther from the Republican Party and closer to Democrats.”

What Schumer and Israel have in common: They're fundraisers for Democrats.

Israel’s DCCC role requires him to raise money for House Democrats. Schumer is historically one of the chief fundraisers for Senate Democrats.

Politico’s MJ Lee explains what these two are up to: “Democrats have formed a united front in support of the bank, seizing on an opening to appeal to the hearts and wallets of the business community ahead of the November elections.”

Israel and Schumer both come from New York, highlighting one of Ex-Im's other big clients besides Boeing and the big exporters -- Wall Street. Ex-Im mostly subsidizes exports through loan guarantees. That means JPMorgan Chase lends money to a foreign airline, and if the foreign airline -- say, Ethiopian Airlines -- fails, the U.S. taxpayers eat JPMorgan's loss.

There's nothing new about the Left favoring corporate welfare in general, and Ex-Im in particular. Even under President George W. Bush, many more Republicans than Democrats opposed Ex-Im renewal in Congress: 50 House Republicans voted against Ex-Im in 2002, compared to only 26 Democrats.

What’s new is that there is a strong anti-corporatist streak on the Right and even within the upper reaches of the GOP.

When both parties were thoroughly corporatist, Democrats could sprinkle a few tax hikes into their policy stew of subsidies and mandates and claim the populist mantle—and the media would believe them.

Now, with the GOP opposing (some) corporate welfare, the Democrats’ corporatism is laid bare. Guys like Schumer and Israel probably figure that if they can’t pretend to be fighting for the little guys anymore, they may as well more aggressively fundraise from the big guys they’re subsidizing.

Instead of scrambling to keep the love of Big Business, Republicans should accept Schumer’s framing: The Democrats are the party of Big Business and Big Government.

Let’s see how that works on Election Day.

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